I accidentally added a extra quart of oil
a few months ago making it a total 7 and found the truck starts a lot quieter especially since the cold weather is here. The dip stick also shows that it's not overfilled...I'm I imagening things?

 

Not sure what Year or Eng you got, but my '99 5.4 takes 6.5 (The manual said 6 ) Quarts and putting in 7 never made the Dipstick reading change much. I doubt the oil has anyting to do with the start unless maybe you were use to starting with minimal oil in there

 

Our dipsticks are not very accurate.

You want to put in 6qts, its not a good idea to go over.

Ive seen a few people suggest putting in 6qts, then see where the oil line is on the dipstick and mark it somehow (I want to say use a permanent marker but Im not sure thats good for the engine if the oil burns it off? )

 

My motor is a '02 5.4. Nothing bugs me more than a engine that taps when started in the cold. I use the motorcraft filters with the anti-drain back valve which does help. I'm assuming the extra quart of oil allows the crank to sit in a little more oil than normal making it quieter at start up. The dip stick does show it a little above normal but not much. Someone I know insisted that his '97 4.6 did take 7 qts. I quess he may of been right. After reading many, many articles on the 5-20w debate here and elsewere I decided to use the 5-30w just for quieter operation. Forget about adding Lucas, that made the engine make more noise once it dropped below 40 degrees. I quess I should expect these high tech overhead cam engines with their complex valve trains and chains drives to be a little loud.

 

bunyock, I know a few who over fill the oil pan and run without a problem. It is important to know what you are doing though. If the crank splashes around in the oil you will get air bubbles in the oil. You can check this by looking for tiny air bubbles on the dip stick. If you don't see any, then you are ok.

The over fill point is well above the top of the full line on the dip stick. Air in the oil is bad for lubrication. The oil will have reduced film strength. More oil is always better though. More additives, and more fluid to disperse contaminants in. I'm sure that is why Ford designed our engines with a 6 quart sump.

I have hard the "It taps less with more oil" theory, and I don't understand why that would be. I know mine only taps in summer, not in winter, and my tapping just happened to clear up at the same time I was cleaning the fuel injectors?

 

I don't think the engine knows the difference between 7 qts or 5 qts at startup........ The oil pickup tube is at the very bottom of the pan and as long as it has enough oil to stay submerged that's all that matters.

There are no "FULL" mark on dipsticks anymore. It's MIN and MAX now. All things being equal, with 5 qts in the pan, it should just register at the very bottom of the stick. The sixth qt should bring it to about the middle of the MIN/MAX section. That is 'technically' your "FULL" mark.

What I did on my trucks first oil change is fill the oil filter up some and take the remaining qt and 4 others and poured it in. Checked the stick and it was just touching the bottom of the stick. Added the sixth qt and it was in the middle.

Now I know when it's a qt low and can adjust accordingly. When I was using 'dino' oil and changing at 3k miles, it would be right around the MIN mark, but since I was changing oil anyway, I never did have to add any. Now that I'm using M1 and changing every 5k miles, I check at the 3k mark and it'll be down to the MIN mark again, but this time I do add a qt to get me to the 5k mile mark......

That's just what I do and if adding the additional .5 or 1 qt works for you, great.... I only know you don't want to overfill for the reasons stated above. I'd rather be a qt low then overfilled anyday!

Good luck!